Reality TV Show to pick 100 contestants for US President

They're picking two candidates from each state, so if you want to be President start working on your application now!

Without thinking about it too much, I can see the following possibilities:

1. Nobody watches.
2. All kinds of nuts get on this and start picking up followers. (My wife says that the beauty of the Internet is that wierdos who used to be isolated by geography can now find thousands just like them.)
3. It makes us appreciate the party candidates.
4. It makes the party candidates become less scripted.

Any more?

September 21, 2002
FX Channel Hopes to Run Joe Six Pack for President
By LYNETTE HOLLOWAY


Ever since television started the reality-show craze, people have jumped off cliffs, been submerged in a container of rats and bungee-jumped off tall buildings.

But now television is getting really dangerous. Average people will try to survive in the political jungle.

Or at least that is the premise of a new show to be produced by FX, a cable channel trying to cut through the clutter of the 200-channel universe. The channel, owned by the News Corporation, intends to put on a reality show that it says just might produce a grass-roots candidate for the 2004 presidential election.

The idea seems farfetched. But the channel hopes that it can tap into the same chemistry that made a huge recent hit of its corporate sibling's "American Idol," a Fox Network show on which amateurs competed for a record contract and a chance to be the next pop singing sensation. In fact, the show will be called "American Candidate."

Whether cinéma vérité about the hustings is sexy enough to draw viewers remains to be seen. The show will use elements of the documentary "The War Room," which chronicled the behind-the-scenes strategists in Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. It will follow contestants as they campaign against one another to become the viewers' choice for president of the United States.

A panel will review applications and whittle them down to 100 semifinalists, 2 from each state. The show is scheduled for 13 episodes to begin on January 2004. On each episode, viewers and members of a live audience will vote contestants off the show. Contestants will campaign against the backdrop of American icons, like Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty. The show will end on July 4 at the Washington Mall with a face-off involving three candidates.

It is up to the winner, or any other contestant, to decide whether to try to get on the real presidential ballot. But don't hold your breath. Getting on the ballot would take a gargantuan effort.

The network will not help candidates build war chests or pay them for their participation on the show, said R. J. Cutler, one of the show's creators and the producer of "The War Room."

"The network will not support the candidate," said Peter Liguori, president and chief executive of FX. "It is merely offering them a platform in much of the same way that an editorial page allows for opinions to be brought to a wider public. The audience will decide which candidates move forward. Once the show is done, the network will step aside and he or she can decide whether they want to continue or withdraw."

He promises that the series will not make a mockery out of the electoral system and that it will adhere to legal requirements. Applicants can be any American citizen who will be 35 years old by Jan. 20, 2005. They must produce a petition signed by 50 supporters who can explain why the applicant would make a good president.

"They will see the candidate's presidential mettle tested," Mr. Cutler said. "You will absolutely watch them campaign. You will hear about their core beliefs. You'll find out how they use opposition research tactics. You'll learn about their oratory skills and if there are skeletons in their closets and see once and for all if their sex lives matter."

Mr. Cutler and Mr. Liguori said they hoped that viewers would take the show seriously. They point to Jesse Ventura, who became governor of Minnesota based on the popularity he gained as a wrestler on television.

"When you look at the Jesse Venturas of the world, you see that once someone has access to television their points of view can find constituents," Mr. Liguori said. "That's what this is about. We are taught from first grade that anyone can grow up to be president of the United States. This show is really celebrating that."

This would not be the first time someone has flirted with running for president from a television base, said Ron Simon, a curator at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York. Pat Paulsen, a comedian on the old Smothers Brothers show, ran in 1968.

Mr. Cutler said that there was already a lot of excitement about the project.

"We just announced it today and our phones are already ringing off the hook," he said.